It was the moment every rugby league fan waited for.
Sonny Bill Williams was making his return to the NRL and Sam Burgess was ready to mark his teritory.

EXTRACT: "THERE is no greater rivalry in the NRL than that between the Rabbitohs and the Roosters. As the only remaining foundation clubs, they have played more matches between them - at 205 - than any other two clubs.

The clubs seemed to take turns at success, with long periods of superiority alternating between them ...

From 1948 to 1959, we won 17 out of 22 matches. Then we lost seven of the next eight, before winning 18 out of 21 games from 1963 to 1973, including the last Souths golden era, which brought four premierships from 1967 to 1971.

The Roosters did play a significant part, however, in bringing about the end of that golden era and have certainly contributed to our subsequent premiership drought. As we went into decline in the early '70s they moved into the era of professionalism.

They were the first club to display a sponsor's name (City Ford) on their jumpers and, with the influx of cash, the results soon followed. They also worked out how to look after their players, and we paid the price.

In 1971 international winger Michael Cleary became the first of a long line of players to move from Redfern to Bondi Junction. He was soon followed by the great Ron Coote in 1972 and Test hooker Elwyn Walters in 1974, the last two being instrumental in the Roosters' back-to-back 1974-75 titles.

As the league world turned upside down in 1995 with the emergence of Super League, so too did Souths' fortunes. And as we battled to stay afloat, the Roosters seemed to take great delight in kicking us when we were down. Kicking us hard.

They beat us 13 times in a row, along the way notching up scores of 62-0 on Anzac Day, 1996; 42-0 a year later; 30-6 the only time we played them in 1998; and 42-6 the only time we played them in 1999.

For Souths fans it was sickening, and it got a whole lot worse. As if it wasn't bad enough that we were unceremoniously dumped from the competition in October 1999, the Roosters once again rubbed their very own brand of tricolour salt into our wounds.

Already in deep shock as they faced the prospect of the 2000 season without their team, our fans then had to put up with the Roosters signing the most outstanding Souths junior for more than a decade, a player who had publicly stated he had, all his life, wanted to play his entire career at Souths: the majestic Craig Wing.

Then when we did get back into the competition in 2002, it was the Roosters who demanded we play our first game against them. They seemed to enjoy smacking us 40-6, and then again, 42-6, in the return game later that year.

In 2007, the Roosters carried on about their 100th year and predictably claimed they are the only foundation club to have played every season.

It seems there's nothing they do that isn't in some way aimed at us, or at imitating us. They changed their name twice to try and capture the inner-city market.

Yet, try as they might, there's no escaping the cold hard facts that South Sydney were formed before Eastern Suburbs, have won far more premierships than Easts, Sydney City and Sydney Roosters combined, and have a much greater junior and fan base.

In the end it comes down to the souls of the two clubs. Although they are indeed a foundation club, somewhere along the way the Roosters lost their soul. They simply don't have the tradition, the stories or the romance that is South Sydney.

Nevertheless, for more than 30 years, the Roosters had it pretty much their own way. Professionalism. Sponsorship. The big end of town. We had to watch it all, green with envy. But that's over now. The pendulum that has swung back and forth between our clubs for 100 years is back with us.

But the Roosters won't ever surrender to us without one hell of a fight. To beat them takes more than our bodies, more than our hearts, and more than our minds. To beat them requires that we commit our souls to the spirit of the cardinal and myrtle: the creed of the Rabbitoh."

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